\"The Age of the Marvelous,\" an exhibition planned at the North Carolina Museum of Art for January 25 - March 22, 1992, will explore the 16th- and 17th-century fascination with the \"marvelous,\" meaning the unusual, unexpected, and/or exotic.

Sir John White was one of the first men to explore what would become North Carolina, and served as governor of the ill-fated Lost Colony. He was also a highly observant artist, whose detailed sketches and paintings are among the best records of the North Carolina coast and its native population at the time of European exploration.

Several sixteenth- and seventeenth- century works were received at the Museum as gifts from the late Mrs. George Khuner of Beverly Hills, California. The gift includes seventeen Dutch, Flemish, Italian, and German paintings. The masterpiece of the group is a work titled Virgin and Child in a Landscape by the German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553). Cranach was highly influential upon his contemporaries and his biography and the painting are briefly described.

The Museum recently received on long-term loan a sixteenth-century painting by the Venetian/Veronese artist Paolo Caliari (1528-1588) titled The Dead Christ with Joseph of Arimathea (circa 1585). Considered one of his masterpieces, the work depicts the body of Christ being supported by an angel and a man, probably Joseph of Arimathea. Caliari is considered one of the greatest colorists in the history of painting. This painting comes from the latter period of his life and shows his move toward a more deeply felt and intimate form of spirituality.